Antinous

Antinous (Greek: Ἀντίνοος, Antinoös) (27 November, c. 111–before 30 October 130 ) was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian. He was deified after his death, although his exact status in the Roman pantheon was uncertain. Antinoüs, with a diaeresis, is the hypercorrect spelling of his name. Thorsten Opper in Hadrian: Empire and Conflict notes: "Hardly anything is known of Antinous' life, and the fact that our sources get more detailed the later they are does not inspire confidence." At an irreducible minimum he was born to a Greek family in Bithynion-Claudiopolis, in the Roman province of Bithynia in what is now north-west Turkey, and joined the entourage of the emperor Hadrian at a young age, although...